The golden sheen of its abdomen caught my attention
This year I spent my birthday hiking in the woods at Eagle Creek Park in Indianapolis, Indiana. This is a park that we've visited many times on the Wild Boyz Photography site. Whether it was the photo of ice pressed against the shore in the July 2019 Black and White gallery, the sunset photos in the August 2019 Sunset gallery, or the Virginia Spiderwort flower in the August 2020 Macro gallery; there is a lot of beautiful nature in this park.
It was a pleasantly hot day, as it typically is on my birthday, which is in June. There were plenty of bugs flying about as I made my way along the trail. As I was making my way up a hill, this particular insect caught my attention. I had never quite seen anything like it. It was flying about low to the ground and stopping occasionally. When it was on the ground, it would flex and arch its abdomen towards its head in a curling motion. The colors on it were particularly interesting as well, as it had a golden sheen to its body.
If I thought the identification of the green elfcup was challenging, little did I know that I was in for a world of exploration when it came to identifying this little insect. After spending quite some time on iNaturalist and a few other species identification websites, I was finally able to identify this insect as the Golden-backed Snipe Fly.
The golden-backed snipe fly is a species of insect in the order Diptera, which encompasses some 120,000+ known species. Golden-backed snipe flies are not commonly seen, and there is still much to be learned about them. There is yet to be any research done about the life cycle of this species, and there are no reports about the behaviors of the golden-backed snipe fly in its larval stage.
I was finally able to identify this brilliant insect!
Little is known about the Golden-backed Snipe Fly
Golden-backed Snipe Fly Fun Facts:
- They are rarely seen more than two feet off the ground.
- They are slow flyers, but are thought to prey on other insects.
- The eyes of male golden-backed snipe flies are much larger than the eyes of the females.
- They belong to the Rhagionidae family, which only encompasses some 16 genera of insects.
- The scientific name of the golden-backed snipe fly is Chrysopilus thoracicus.
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